Enval partners with Kraft and Nestle to help extract aluminium from laminate tubes

UK company Enval is to work with both Kraft Foods and Nestle to support the construction of a commercial scale facility to recycle laminate tubes.

Although Kraft and Nestle will not be direct customers of Enval, they will work with the company to encourage waste handling companies to buy Enval’s equipment and develop a plant capable of recycling the likes of food pouches and toothpaste tubes.

Nestle and Kraft will be part of a consortium that Enval is building among the packaging supply chain to encourage the sustainability of laminate packaging.

Kraft Foods senior director packaging research, development and quality Perfecto Perales said: “We’re hopeful the Enval Consortium will build on our past successes with other groups that proved effective in driving the collection and re-use of post-consumer flexible packaging waste. The Enval Consortium brings together a cross industry group of people from across the industry supply chain, focused on determining the commercial merits of this promising technology for aluminium recovery in flexible films.”

Enval business development director David Boorman said: “The primary purpose of the consortium is to share the capital cost of building the first Enval commercial plant and drive awareness of the technology to accelerate its adoption. Enval’s focus is now on constructing the new plant so that it is ready for commissioning early next year and then commencing commercial operations soon after that.”

The process works by separating aluminium from the laminate packaging so that it can be re-introduced into the secondary aluminium market. The plastic is converted into a pyrolysis gas that can be used to generate electricity.